Conquest and Reclamation in the Transatlantic Imagination

<p>This book examines the imperial spectacles and startling reversals of fortune related in William H. Prescott's <i>History of the Conquest of Mexico</i> (1843) and <i>History of the Conquest of Peru</i> (1847) and investigates how these accounts inspired fictional adaptations by George A. Henty H. Rider Haggard and George Griffith. The revision of history in the Amerindian adventure both entertained young transatlantic audiences and was a vehicle to attract tourism and investment in countries such as Mexico and Peru. Henty Haggard and Griffith moreover used their tales of adventure as a platform to impart British values to their readers. Such values compel the characters and narrators of the novels discussed to act as cultural mediators to acquire indigenous languages and adopt native ways of being and in several of the romance adventures under consideration to marry Mexican or Incan noblewomen. Part I Conquest examines George Henty’s <i>By Right of Conquest: Or With Cortez in Mexico</i> (1891) H. Rider Haggard’s <i>Montezuma’s Daughter </i>(1893) and George Griffith’s <i>Virgin of the Sun: A Tale of the Conquest of Peru</i> (1898). Part II Reclamation argues that English re-writings of history work to eclipse the Spanish in Haggard’s <i>Virgin the Sun</i> (1922) Henty’s <i>Treasure of the Incas</i> (1902) and Griffith’s <i>Romance of Golden Star</i> (1897).</p>